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The Gentler Sex

When it comes to gender politics, talk is cheap. Feminists can theorize all they want about how things would be if they ruled the world, but it’s mumbo (without much jumbo) until they’re put to the test. The good news is that there has been an ongoing test, where women are given guns and shields, allowed to roam the streets and exercise authority.

How’s that working out? Via LiveLeak, a video of a female cop in Los Angeles at the tail end of a traffic stop:

Without getting too hung up on the dubious basis for the stop, which appears from what the officer says to be utterly lacking in authority, she does not appear to show much by way of tolerance for the driver’s assertion of his right to be left alone.

In another instance, via The Blaze, an eyewitness “reportedly saw a confrontation unfold between a police officer and victim Hans Kevin Arellano.” Here’s how the eyewitness described the events to CBS Los Angeles:

“She exited her patrol car, gun drawn, and asked the gentlemen to get on the ground. The gentlemen didn’t get on the ground, he was still inside the restaurant. She asked again. The man then exited the restaurant, and as he was exiting the restaurant, he said, ‘What are you gonna do, b—-?’ About a second later, she shot him in the chest.”

There is video taken of the killing, which is embedded at The Blaze, though it’s difficult to tell what happened except that the female officer runs up to the homeless man and, within a few second, shoots him point-blank in the chest.

CBS Los Angeles also provided the video to the Santa Ana Police Department. Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department said he was unable to comment on the part of the video when the officer shot the suspect.

At a Wednesday press conference, Santa Ana interim Police Chief Carlos Rojas pointed out that Arellano was a convicted burglar and claimed he was “combative” when he first got into altercations with individuals in a McDonald’s parking lot.

Note how the Police Chief immediately points out that the homeless man was “a convicted burglar” so that no one feels terribly troubled by the killing of this societally worthless miscreant? Clearly, his prior criminal history has nothing to do with why the female officer plugged him right off despite the absence of any threat of force, deadly or otherwise, to her or anyone else, but at least he reminds us that this isn’t one of those police killings where someone we’re supposed to care about dies. It’s much easier to shrug off the murder of a homeless man than, say, a cute innocent white child.

Neither of these incidents reflects well on the officers involved. Indeed, they’re both extremely outrageous and reflect the abuse of power and force that we’ve seen many times in videos or stories about male police officers.

The point is not that the offensive conduct of two female officers tars a gender, but that they similarly don’t demonstrate the thoughtfulness and restraint that women claim they would exercise if they were in power.

To the extent that the oft-repeated meme, if women ruled the world, there would be more kindness, more gentleness, a meme that defies the feminist credo that there are no gender distinctions, the conduct of these female officers suggests it’s a self-serving load of crap. If this is an example, women with guns and shields can be every bit as abusive and offensive as anyone else, except perhaps in more of a rush to pull the trigger and kill someone.

Whether that’s a reflection of the “weaker sex,” and thus a gender-based resort to deadly force for lack of the physical ability to address a man’s refusal to comply using reason, patience, less-than-lethal force isn’t entirely clear. It’s not that male police officers have universally shown themselves to be above such flagrant misconduct, but that there are male cops who don’t engage in misconduct and female cops who do.

To the extent any larger inference can be drawn from the conduct of two instances of outrageous abuse, it seems to me that it shows how putting unfettered authority and discretion in anyone’s hands, male or female, is an opportunity for the worst to happen. The bullet fired into the chest of Hans Kevin Arellano didn’t care whether the finger on the trigger belonged to a man or woman. It only matters that it killed a man.

So are women the “gentler sex?” Not if they wear a shield and wield a gun.

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4 comments on “The Gentler Sex”

“So are women the “gentler sex?” Not if they wear a shield and wield a gun.”

Uh, does anyone actually claim this? From my view as a self-identified feminist, the entire point is that stuff like the idea of a “gentler sex” or that women are inherently different (whether for better or worse) are misleading. Nobody claims that women are better. I’ve never seen anyone make the claim that women’s rule would be a utopia, outside of bad standup acts.

You need to get out more. As a general rule, just because you’ve “never seen anyone make the claim” has no bearing on whether the claim has been made. It only bears on what you’ve seen, and apparently that’s not much. Try looking first.

Sorry, should’ve written more specifically: I’ve never seen anyone within feminism make the claim. The idea of fundamental non-reproductive differences between the sexes is generally seen as an aspect of gender roles, something to which modern feminism is generally opposed.

I also find it amusing that, of the first page of results, eight are attempting to refute or question the idea, and two are definitions/etymologies of the phrase.

Scott H. Greenfield

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